They say that stranger things happen at sea, and what could be stranger than an ocean-going Ostrich?
The Marine Ostrich was a recent addition the ‘Lessser-Known’ series, where I have tremendous fun coming up with new dogs breeds, and animal or bird species.
In this article I’m going to through the process of creating the cartoon.
Coming up with the idea
I think what first triggered the thought process was watching a video about the marine iguana. Seeing as I already draw a character called Gerald the Goat, this led to me creating the following cartoon:
Either the goat is a little small or that’s a really big Marine Iguana alongside it!
Initial Outline
As usual, I’m working in ProCreate on the iPad Pro. For the outline I’m using the technical pen. I always work in layers, so that I can swap them around easily, make change, and even copy them to use in subsequent cartoons.
Creating the palette
Here is the palette that I’m going to use for the colouring. I’ve pasted a previous cartoonof the Marine Ostrich to use as a reference.
Colouring the character
The colouring of the character is now well underway. I’m using a turpentine effect for the brush, as I thought that consistency of the paint would help to show the bird underwater.
Colouring the background
For the background, I switched brushes to a watercolour wash. I also added some movement lines and air bubbles. The other white marks you can see are the remnants of where I pasted the previous cartoon and then erased most of it. Although it’s a background layer, this layer is actually laid on top of the characters layers as I wanted to show the ostrich underwater.
The finished cartoon
To complete the cartoon, I set an eraser at 30% (I think!) opacity and then went over the background layer, so that the characters showed through a little more.
Finally, I added the caption.
What’s next?
From Ostriches to Ocelots…and Iguanas to Indian Elephants…You name it - I draw it!
I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, containing a whole host of characters as well as cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.
PS. I also did one more cartoon previously riffing off the Marine Iguana theme.
